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THIS CULTURAL LIFE - 124. GILLIAN ANDERSON (320kbs-m4a/98mb/43mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 29th May 2025
Gillian Anderson's breakthrough television role in the sci-fi series The X Files made her a global star in 1993, and she played cool-headed Agent Dana Scully for nearly a decade. She also starred in period dramas, including an acclaimed film adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel The House Of Mirth and, on television, in Bleak House, Great Expectations and War and Peace. Her theatre credits include A Doll's House, A Streetcar Named Desire and All About Eve, all of which saw her nominated for Olivier Awards. Gillian Anderson has won Golden Globe and Emmy Awards for the X Files, and also for The Crown in which she played Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. More recently, she found a new generation of fans for her role as a sex therapist in the series Sex Education. Her latest film is The Salt Path, adapted from the bestselling memoir by Raynor Wynn.
Gillian Anderson tells John Wilson how, after being born in Chicago, she moved with her parents to Crouch End, London, when she was five, and then to Michigan at the age of 11. After what she describes as 'rebellious' teenage years, she studied at Chicago's DePaul University with drama teacher Ric Murphy, whom she cites as a major influence on her early acting ambitions. After a series of minor stage roles in New York, she auditioned for The X Files and the role of Agent Scully changed her life. She also chooses the actor Meryl Streep as a major inspiration after seeing her with Robert Redford in the 1985 romantic drama film Out Of Africa. Gillian also reveals how the work of the Serbian-born conceptual performance artist Marina Abramović has also been an influential cultural figure for her.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
DESERT ISLAND DISCS REVISITED: AMERICANS - GILLIAN ANDERSON (320kbs-m4a/103mb/45mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 19th January 2020
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Gillian Anderson, best known for her role as Dana Scully in The X Files. Gillian was born in Chicago, Illinois. When she was two, she moved with her parents to London. At 11, the family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan which she found deathly dull in comparison to the big city life of London. Gillian began acting in community theatre productions while in high school and decided to study drama at the Goodman Theater School at Chicago's DePaul University. After she finished her degree, she moved to New York City to find work. She performed in a couple of plays, but then was cast as the female lead in a new science fiction TV series.
The X Files turned out to be a massive success and in September 1993, Gillian began a nine-year stint in the FOX TV series. For her role she received two Screen Actors Guild awards, an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series. In 1999 Gillian wrote and directed her own episode. In 2000, Gillian played Lily Bart in the Terence Davies' feature The House of Mirth and won the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress. This year she debuts on the West End in Michael Weller's What the Night is For.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley
Book: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Luxury: Recordings of her daughter and "her love" reading self-written stories and poetry
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2003.
The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want [London]
Joan Armatrading - Save Me [A&M]
Radiohead - Exit Music (For A Film) [Parlophone]
Nina Simone - Strange Fruit [Verve]
Franz Schubert - String Quartet No. 14 In D Minor 'Death And The Maiden' [Deutsche Grammophon]
Jane Siberry - Love Is Everything [Reprise]
Roberta Flack - Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye [Atlantic]
Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah [Columbia]